Ivydene Gardens Photo Damage to Trees in Madeira 2:Page 19 has photos of Damage to Trees in the Pavement of Funchal in Madeira from the Madeira 30 310119 Folder taken in January 2019in Funchal of Madeira.

Photos taken by Chris Garnons-Williams using a digital camera in the original size and as a thumbnail. These can used in the Public Domain for educational purposes in schools, or at home.

Row 1 has the Pass-Through Camera image of Thumbnail image named in Row 2 and is usually 4000 x 3000 pixels.

Row 2 has same image reduced to fit the image frame of 160 x 120 pixels as a Passthrough Thumbnail to show all of the Camera Image. This image has been reduced to 72 pixels per inch by Freeway before I stored it as a Passthrough image for use both here (from August 2019) and as the image in Plant with Photo Index of Ivydene Gardens A 1 Gallery.

Click on either image and drag to your desktop. Then you can crop the Pass-Through Camera image to obtain the particular detail that you require from that image, before using that cropped result in your endeavour.

Copying the pages and then clicking on the images to drag them may not work.

Item is Tree 70 from pestana mirimar branch stump with holes dehydration IMG 6404.JPGtaken in January/February 2019 in Funchal, Madeira by Chris Garnons-WilliamsBranch stump is drying out and splitting. What causes these holes - is it lack of irrigation?

Item is Tree 71 from pestana mirimar IMG 6407.JPGtaken in January/February 2019 in Funchal, Madeira by Chris Garnons-Williams4 branch stumps rotting into the trunks and bark is splitting away from one of the trunks.

Item is Tree 71 from pestana mirimar IMG 6408.JPGtaken in January/February 2019 in Funchal, Madeira by Chris Garnons-WilliamsThis is a view of the old mosaic pavement from the other end of the view in Photo IMG 6402. So it looks as though a skim of concrete will be laid and then a mosaic pavement embeddded in it before that is pointed with concrete to resemble the new pavement in Photo IMG 6402 on Page 18 outside the new hotel Royal Savoy. This new pavement has no benefit for the old trees which have been in that pavement for years.

Item is Tree 72 from pestana mirimar IMG 6409.JPGtaken in January/February 2019 in Funchal, Madeira by Chris Garnons-WilliamsSerious length branch stump damage including 2 areas where it has rotted into the trunk. There are other branch stumps that require attention. These light brown or pink branches are watersprouts and should be removed. You can see that at the same height on the other side of that trunk, there is a snapped off branch stump. Perhaps the electricians putting up the lights think that watersprouts being more vertical than new branches; will eventually produce a better lighting display and therefore leave these watersprouts for later use.

Item is Tree 72 from pestana mirimar IMG 6410.JPGtaken in January/February 2019 in Funchal, Madeira by Chris Garnons-WilliamsBranch stump is now rotting well into the trunk. Note the juvenile branch growing on the left.

Item is Tree 72 from pestana mirimar IMG 6411.JPGtaken in January/February 2019 in Funchal, Madeira by Chris Garnons-WilliamsThis is the base layer of concrete for the new mosaic pavement layer of marble/concrete above it. There is a hole in the trunk.

Item is Tree 73 from pestana mirimar IMG 6412.JPGtaken in January/February 2019 in Funchal, Madeira by Chris Garnons-WilliamsThere is a deep hole of rot in this trunk. The cavity created is splitting the bark above and below the entry hole.

Item is Tree 73 from pestana mirimar IMG 6413.JPGtaken in January/February 2019 in Funchal, Madeira by Chris Garnons-WilliamsThese 3 branch stumps are now rotting into the trunk.

Item is Tree 73 from pestana mirimar IMG 6414.JPGtaken in January/February 2019 in Funchal, Madeira by Chris Garnons-WilliamsDamage to bark on trunk - no sign of branch stump. Could this be the result of carved graphiti and then the section inside the carving has died off and fallen off? The result is a drying and splitting trunk, which will lead to it rotting and the tree falling down.

Item is Tree 74 from pestana mirimar IMG 6417.JPGtaken in January/February 2019 in Funchal, Madeira by Chris Garnons-WilliamsHow far has the cavity extended from this branch stump? The trunk on the left is starting to shed bark and the bark is splitting apart.

This tree is in serious trouble.

I have copied the archived post below, because what is stated there is extremely important, since 99.99% of gardeners in the UK totally ignore the fact that plants require humus and think that double-digging is beneficial every year. That is why they are killing their soil and their plants do not grow well.

"Nature’s plan is to build up the humus year after year and this can only be done by organic matter. There is need to replace and return that which has been taken out. The Chinese, who are the best gardeners, collect, ‘use’, and return to the soil, every possible kind of waste, vegetable, animal and human. In over 4000 years of intensive cultivation they still support more human beings per hectare than any other country in the world! On the other hand in areas like the Middle West of the U.S.A. And the Regina Plain of Canada, where the Wheel of Life has not been recognized, tens of thousands of hectares which once grew heavy crops are now useless, or practically so.

Every flower crop grown reduces the organic content of the ground. Every piece of work done helps to break down the humus. The value of the soil in your garden, therefore, is not the mica particles or grains of sand. It lies in the humus that the soil contains. Humus makes all the difference to successful gardening. Have plenty of humus present and the soil is in good tilth. Humus is the organic colloid of the soil. It can store water, it can store plant foods, it can help to keep the soil open. It can help to ensure the right aeration. It will give ideal insulation against heat and cold.

Using Compost

Garden owners proposing to dig their land shallowly in preparation for flower growing, should realize the importance of adding ample quantities of organic matter before they start. Composted farmyard manure, fine wool shoddy, properly composted vegetable refuse, or hop manure should be added at the rate of one good barrow-load to 10 m2 (12 sq yds) and in addition into the top 25 or 50 mm (1 or 2 in) of soil finely divided sedge peat, non-acid in character should be raked in at about half a bucketful (9 litres) per square metre (2 gallons per sq yd). This organic matter in the top few millimetres of soil gives the little roots a good start and so sends them on to find the organic matter below.

It is when the organic content of the soil has been helped in this way, that the gardener dares to add plant foods of an organic origin. These are usually applied on the surface of the ground and raked in. Fertilizers with an organic base are particularly useful. Fish Manure may be applied at 105 to 140 g/m2 (3 oz to 4 oz per sq yd), or a meat and bone meal or even hoof and horn meal mixed with equal quantities of wood ashes may be used at a similar rate. These plant foods can be supplied not only when the flower garden is first made but every season very early in the spring. A good dried poultry manure to which a little potash has been added is another fertilizer that is very useful when applied at this time.

Minimum Digging

Flower growers must realize that proper soil treatment is the first essential to success. The millions and millions of soil bacteria that live in the ground to help the gardener, much appreciate little or no digging. It enables them to work better, for they need conditions which are natural. So do give them what they need.

Liming

Lime should be regarded as an essential except in very definite cases where acidity is demanded, e.g. the heaths and heathers, rhododendrons and azaleas.

Lime not only prevents soil from being acid but it ‘sweetens’ it, as well as playing its part as a plant food. It improves the texture and workability of heavy soils. It helps to release other plant foods, and it decomposes organic compounds in the soil so that they can be used as plant food also.

Generally speaking it should be applied at about 245 g/m2 (7 oz per sq yd). It should not be dug in, as it washes down into the soil very quickly. It should be sprinkled on the surface of the ground after the digging and manuring has been done. Do not mix lime with organic fertilizers. There are three main types of lime: Quicklime, sometimes sold as Buxton Lime or Lump Lime, which has to be slaked down on the soil; Chalk or Limestone, often sold as Ground Limestone, only half as valuable as quicklime; and Hydrated Lime, which is perhaps the most convenient to handle and is therefore most usually used by gardeners.The quantity of lime mentioned previously i.e. 245 g/m2 (7 oz per sq yd), refers to hydrated lime."

The following is the opinion of Chris Garnons-Williams to the above:-

If you walk through an old wooded area, which is not intensively managed, you will see dead leaves on the ground, together with fallen branches, brambles, nettles, other weeds and juvenile plants. There will be waste material from birds and animals and this has not been cleared up and disposed of. This mulch then provides the organic material to be recycled via the ground with its different organisms to the roots of those same trees for them to continue to grow. Nobody digs up the ground to push this material in a few inches or to the depth of the topsoil, nature does it with earthworms and other organisms at the rate required by the organisms down below to then use it. The trees in this wood then grow fairly uniformly using the available resources.

So, do not dig the manure, wool shoddy, vegetable refuse or hop manure or anything else in. Leave it on top as a mulch and that includes the organic fertilizers and the lime.Instead of adding finely divided sedge peat, add spent mushroom compost which contains peat which has already been used; and so you are using their waste product for recycling, instead of destroying more peat bogs which have taken 1000's of years to be created. You could use bracken instead of peat.

The topsoil is full of organisms, either the waste products from are used by another or they are. If you turn them up from the bottom of the topsoil to the top, then those new top ones will starve to death and the ones who were at the top are now at the bottom and they will as well since it is only waste down there which is not their normal fare. They do have a bus transport system to get them back to their original levels, since water is the only transport system down there, which unfortunately normally goes downwards.

So why do you not use the companion planting cultivation method as further detailed in Companion Planting? You may follow this with the following which is normally used for the vegetable garden:-

"Spinach is sown in spring in rows 50cm apart over the whole vegetable garden area for the following purposes:

these rows divide the vegetable garden up for the whole year,

the spinach roots prevent erosion, so the usual paths between beds are omitted,

young spinach plants provide protection and shade for the vegetable crops to be grown between them,

spinach provides ideal material for sheet surface composting, which becomes an intermediate space, a footpath, and

it is in between these lines of spinach that the other vegetable varieties are arranged."

This could be used in the flower beds as the system between the permanent plants of trees, shrubs and perennials, which is where you may put bedding. This will also provide you with access to the bedding and the permanent plants together with the nitrogen fertilizer for the other plants from the legumes of spinach. You plant your bedding, bulbs or vegetables through the mulch between the lines of spinach. The damage you do to where you plant is fairly quickly repaired by the organisms in the surrounding soil, who each come into the level below the ground level where they normally reside, until they meet their relatives onthe other side of the planting hole. The ecosystem is then restored.

Click on thumbnail to change this Comparison Page to the Plant Description Page of the Bedding Plant named in the Text box below that photo.

The Comments Row of that Bedding Plant Description Page details where that Bedding Plant is available from.

Bedding Plant INDEX .

See also the Bedding Plant INDEX of the Bedding in the Mixed Borders of the Royal Horticultural Society Garden at Wisley in 2013. This gallery also compares the Flower Colours, Foliage Colours, Bedding Use and Flower Shape of the bedding plants in those Mixed Borders.

Pages 6-7 of The Pruning of Trees, Shrubs and Conifers by George E. Brown. ISBN 0-571-11084-3 state that pruning requires a

Protective Dressing:- "When a cut is made, a considerable amount of heartwood is exposed which, in the case of the larger stems and branches, has become salignified or hardened to give mechanical strength. This remains healthy and perfectly preserved, provided it is protected from air and water, pests and other harmful organisms and the tree is in a healthy condition. The cut immediately exposes this wood and it is vital, therefore, to protect it as speedily as possible before the destructive agents begin their work. It will be apparent how quickly a sealant must be applied, when it is realised that the air is full of spores of all kinds which may alight on the cut surface at any time. There is also the point that it is left until later it is quite easily forgotten or overlooked, and in going back over the work extra effort is involved. All cuts over 1 inch (25 mm) in diameter should be treated, although with young specimens even smaller wounds should be dressed.The material used must be waterproof. It should retain its pliable nature for a long period without cracking. It should not be favourable to the development of diseases or pests - in fact the ideal dressing would have an active and lasting fungicidal property.At present, the specially prepared bituminous products are most widely favoured for they are reasonably easy to apply and remain pliable for very long periods. Even these preparations, however, eventually dry and deteriorate to expose the wood, unless the healing has been completed (the callus has covered over the whole wound). It is therefore necessary to look over the wounds at least annually and, if necessary, make further applications, although a 6-monthly inspection of every tree is in any case advisable, and it would be natural to inspect wounds at the same time. Often, radial cracks appear in the heartwood on the surface of a large wound as it dries out. These need to be filled in as they open and the surface covered with further applications of a wound dressing."My comments - I started by using Arbrex (this Solabiol Arbrex Seal and Heal seems to be the most up to date version), but found it too expensive and too little in its jar, so I switched to Black External Masonry Paint (this Bedec Extra Flex Masonry Paint currently seems to be a very good one) which did the job and was very much cheaper.

Pages 9-11 of The Pruning of Trees, Shrubs and Conifers by George E. Brown. ISBN 0-571-11084-3 states this about Cavities and Development of Cavities:-

"CavitiesThese often penetrate deeply into the branch or trunk. There is evidence to show that degenerative processes which are initiated on stubs or snags, often spread quickly into the parent branch or trunk by the old conducting tissue. As the breakdown continues the whole snag becomes rotten and may hold considerable moisture which encourages further spread. A lengthy snag prevents complete healing and the resultant callus forms a cup-shaped lip which collects moisture as the snag rots away completely. When this happens the moisture or standing water often remains permanently,and this encourages further decay into the centre of the trunk or branch.......

Development of CavitiesIt must be recognised that however small a cavity is, once it is formed it is serious and in time, if allowed to develop, may weaken the tree and shorten its life. This may even be making light of the situation, for the wood deteriorates far in advance of the actual cavity and decay is often more extensive below the opening than above, see above figure. The decay is usually most rapid in the softer-wooded trees such as Poplar. The more extensive rotting below the cavity is of course natural, for water often collects in the hollow, either as a result of rain or because of the seepage of sap from neighbouring living tissues. Once moisture does collect, putrefaction sets in and the effect is a progressive increase in the activity of the organisms causing the breakdown. This takes place very rapidly if there are other snags nearby, for the areas of degenerated and diseased wood quickly join up with each other and eventually the inner core of an entire trunk or branch will decompose to leave a hollow shell. The danger at this stage is from any large branches which are adjacent to the area of decay; as their junctions are weakened. Eventually they are shed and the hollow trunk is left standing.Thus the story is one of progressive decay which must, if left unattended, lead to a drastic shortening of the life of a tree. The rate of decay will speed up as the condition and the health of the tree deteriorates, large limbs are lost and the root system suffers."

This tree was tied with plastic baling twine to a fence when very young. The white section shows the width at which it was tied. This tree top snapped in the wind.

Please never use plastic twine or wire to tie a plant.

It also means that if you put metal, concrete, tarmac etc round the base of a tree, then it will grow over it and then the above will happen later in the life of the tree; because the weight above this constriction will exceeed the mechanical strength at the constriction point.

Pages 25-26 of The Pruning of Trees, Shrubs and Conifers by George E. Brown. ISBN 0-571-11084-3 states this about Forked Leaders:-

"It is most important to establish a newly planted tree as soon as possible, and it may be necessary to feed and water to ensure a speedy establishment and the good growth which is required. So far as pruning and training are required, one of the most important points is to retain and encourage the lead for trees, see Fig. 10 below.

Page 23 of The Pruning of Trees, Shrubs and Conifers by George E. Brown. ISBN 0-571-11084-3 states this about Terminal Bud and Dormant Branch Growth Bud:-"The impression may be given that the formation of a branch system in a young tree is to a certain extent accidental. This is not so. The buds on a stem or twig are dominated by the terminal bud. This bud reduces the vigour of the remainder; in fact, those near the base often do not develop but remain dormant. They may remain in this condition for many years, perhaps throughout the life of the tree. However, should a break or a pruning cut be made in the upper portion, these lower buds may develop and grow out. It should be noted that dormant buds often keep pace with the developing stem over the years, ready to break out should the need arise."

Topic - Camera Photo Galleries showing all 4000 x 3000 pixels of each photo on your screen that you can then click and drag to your desktop:-